Multifunction robots are employed in continuous casting plants in order to carry out with high precision activities which are difficult and particularly hazardous for the operating personnel, in the region near liquid metal and under the effects of heat and dust. According to current demand in the operating situation, multifunction robots of this type are set up for carrying out a series of different activities in their effective range. The multifunction robot is preferably designed as a 6-axis robot.
The field of use embraces all types of continuous casting plants for the production of metal strands of any desired cross section from liquid metal, in particular from liquid steel. These are preferably single-strand or multistrand casting plants for the production of metal strands having slab, bloom or billet cross sections and of metal strands having any desired profile cross sections.
A multifunction robot of the generic type is already known from WO 2005/118182 A1. This robot is assigned a specific running gear and a runway, so that it can assume different positions of use. According to a particular embodiment, this running gear is additionally assigned a pivoting gear with a jib, on the projecting end portion of which a multifunction robot is positioned. By means of this arrangement, the multifunction robot can not only be brought into a position of use determined by the running gear, but can be pivoted between two or more working regions by means of the pivoting arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,051 or EP 0 371 482 B1 discloses a robot on the casting platform of a continuous casting plant, which robot is anchored in a stationary manner there and is equipped with an image acquisition and evaluation device for detecting its working surroundings in the region of a continuous mold. In particular, this robot is set up for the casting powder feed, for inert gas injection, for slag whisker removal and for the detection of bath level abnormalities. An essential disadvantage of this system is the stationary positioning in the region near the mold and the resulting obstruction of the operating personnel in the event of sudden faults in casting operation which require rapid intervention concentrated on the particular problem.
JP-A 5-169206 and JP-A 3-353900 disclose multifunction robots for sealing off a dummy strand in the mold of a continuous casting plant before the start of casting, each of these robots being movable between a position of use and a standby position on a railborne vehicle on the casting platform. JP-A 07-01639 likewise shows a multifunction robot which is placed on the running frame of a rail vehicle and is employed specially for the change of casting spouts. Further, it is known from JP-A 3-071959 to arrange movably on two separate rail tracks two robots which independently of one another carry out activities on the casting ladle and on the tundish. Although robots placed on a rail vehicle make it possible to displace the robots into a retraction region on the casting platform, with the result that access for the operating personnel is improved, the running rails nevertheless remain, which continue to constitute a stumbling place and the risk of accidents for the operating personnel. By being bound to the floor, railborne systems of this type are highly susceptible to faults in the event of casting faults caused by escaping liquid steel.
It is also known to arrange on the casting plant automated devices which, as a consequence of design, perform only a single activity. A device of this type is known for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,553, which comprises a casting powder feed device on the jib of a turret. After the hot bath level surface has been detected, the casting powder is conducted by means of a movable gripping arm out of a casting powder container through a flexible line onto the bath level surface.